You Can Almost Always Tell Someone Has An Unusually High IQ If They Get Excited About These 3 Odd Things
Ground Picture | Shutterstock There are many markers for a highly intelligent person. More than just how they would do on an exam that tests their intelligence. You can actually tell someone has an unusually high IQ by the things they get excited about.
Katarina Esko, a life coach for the highly intelligent, posted a video on TikTok explaining the odd things that often spark joy in people with unusually high IQs. What she stressed was that these passions might be unusual but are not things to hide; in fact, she stressed that anyone who gets excited about these things is "confident in a healthy way."
You can almost always tell someone has an unusually high IQ if they get excited about these 3 odd things:
1. Meeting someone with an expertise or highly specialized skill
NDAB Creativity | Shutterstock
Highly intelligent people are attracted to knowledge. When they meet someone who is very knowledgeable about something, it piques their interest. According to WebMD, markers of genius-level intelligence in children include "intense need for mental stimulation and engagement" and "excitement about unique topics or interests."
Basically, from childhood, highly intelligent people get excited about expertise and specialized knowledge. This isn't surface-level knowledge. The excitement comes from the intricate details of a subject that only true experts even broach.
It could be anything from racing cars to WWE to physics. A person with a high IQ will be happy to indulge their curiosity by asking questions and diving into a learning session with the expert.
2. Getting specific feedback that helps them improve
Criticism, even if it's constructive, is hard for most people to stomach, but not for people with unusually high IQs. In fact, according to Esko, they actually get excited by the prospect of bettering themselves.
Esko explained, “highly intelligent individuals tend to have very high standards for everything that they do, and they tend to be very good at everything that they do, so they actually are interested in what the perspective that they might be missing in their work that you might have.” People who are highly intelligent are proactive about feedback, not reactive.
3. Being 'silly' to make others comfortable
PeopleImages | Shutterstock
Esko explained that individuals with a high IQ understand that intelligence can sometimes be intimidating, but they also understand that the world is a diverse and wonderful place that they want to enjoy with all the different people in it. That's where their joy in not taking themselves seriously comes in.
Highly intelligent people use their wits to make people feel more comfortable around them. Lowri Dowthwaite-Walsh,
Lecturer in Psychological Interventions at the University of Lancashire, explained, "Researchers in Austria recently discovered that funny people, particularly those who enjoy dark humour, have higher IQs than their less funny peers.”
People with high IQs may use self-defeating humor to ease the tension between their intelligence and their superior-subordinate relationship.
People with a high IQ are often seen as almost otherworldly thanks to books and movies, but the fact is, while they might have a mind for math or a penchant for musical theory, being super smart is a whole lot more nuanced than that. Your obsession with everything related to knitting might not be what people classically categorize as a brainy activity, but that doesn't mean it isn't. The one thing that is always present when it comes to the super smart: the need to keep learning.
Laura Lomas is a writer with a Master’s degree in English and Creative Writing who focuses on news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
